1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to a communication apparatus such as a telephone and a facsimile machine, wherein the communication apparatus includes a main phone (provided with a primary handset) and an additional cordless handset (or handsets).
2. Description of the Related Art
Recently, as part of services, telephone exchange stations have been providing telephone subscribers with various kinds of data via telephone networks. An example of such data is "caller ID (caller-identification)." Typically, the caller ID is supplied during silent periods of a calling signal. The contents of the caller ID may be the date and time of a call, the telephone number of a caller, the telephone number of the receiver, the type of the call, the name of the caller, and the conditions of the network systems.
When the caller ID includes information about the telephone number of a caller, the subscriber can enjoy a "number display service" with the use of a specially designed telephone or facsimile machine for that purpose. According to the number display service, the telephone number of a caller will be visually presented on a liquid crystal display of the telephone. Thus, just by looking at the display panel, the receiver (i.e., the user of the receiving telephone) can know who is making a call, even before he or she answers the call.
Consideration is now given to a facsimile machine including a main phone and two additional cordless handsets (a first additional handset and a second additional handset). The main phone is capable of providing number display function, whereas the first and second additional handsets are not. Now, it is supposed that the above facsimile machine is owned by a family consisting of four members (a husband, a wife, a daughter and a son). The main phone may be installed in the living room where every member of the family can use the phone, while the first additional handset may be placed in the daughter's room, and the second additional handset may be placed in the son's room.
Conventionally, in the above circumstances, when someone else dials the telephone number of the family, hoping to talk with a particular one of the family members, not only the main phone but also the first and second additional handsets will be actuated to ring. In such an instance, the wife, who happens to be in the living room, may be the first to answer the call without bothering to check on the displayed telephone number, or it may be the girl who first answered the call through the first additional handset by which the caller's telephone number is not shown.
On the above occasion, however, chances are that it may be the boy (not the wife nor the girl) who is wanted by the caller. If so, whoever first answered the call (the wife or the girl in the above example) needs to transfer the call to the second additional handset belonging to the boy. Unfavorably, such an operation can be troublesome for the wife or the girl. For the boy, who failed to be the first one to answer the call, it may be embarrassing to let other members of the family come to know who has made a call to him.